Fiber-rubbing machine



(No Model.)

a sheets-sheep A. SCOTT.

FIBER RUBBING MACHINE.

PatentedApn'S, 1890.

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A, SCOTT. TIBER'RUBBING MACHINE.

NO. 425,006. Patented Apr. 8, 1890.

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(No Model.)

A. SCOTT.

FIBER RUBBING MACHINE.

No. 425,006. Patented-Apr. 8 1890.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALEXANDER SCOTT, OF CRONLY, NORTH CAROLINA.

FIBER-RUBBING MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 425,006, dated April 8, 1890.

Application filed May 22, 1889. Serial No. 311,682- (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ALEXANDER Soorr, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cronly, county of Columbus, State of North Carolina, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fiber-Rubbing Machines, of which the following is a specification.

My invention particularly relates to machines of the class described in my United States Letters Patent No. 315,666, dated April 14, 1885, for extracting and treating the fiber of pine needles and like vegetable sources of fiber, to which patent reference may be made for explanations of details common to both machines.

The improvement will first be fully described with relation to the accompanying drawings, reference being made to the claims for a statement of the novel features.

In said drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of my improved machine. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal vertical sectional View thereof. Fig. 3 is a transverse vertical sectional view on the line 3 3, Figs. 1 and 2.

1 is the frame of the machine. In this frame the several devices for feeding, picking, straightening, disintegrating, turning, and cleaning the needles are mounted. The machine will be most clearly described in the course of a view of the needles as they pass through it.

The needles are fed to two endless aprons 2 by hand or otherwise, and by them conveyed to slowly-rotating feed-rollers 3. These hold the needles up to the relatively rapidlyrotating surface of picker-roller 4, which parallelizes the needles and drops them on the two endless aprons 5. These aprons convey them to feed roller 6, by which the needles are delivered to longitudinally-grooved rollpart being oppositely pitched on its two ends,

so that as the rollers turn to feed the needles forward they will also tend to keep them centrally of each half of the rollers. The rollers 9 are spaced equally distant of the rollers 8 and arranged close to their upper surfaces. They have 011 their surface right-21 e, not spiral-circuinferential grooving, as shown in Fig. 1. While the rollers 8 have a simple rotating motion to the rollers 9 there is imparted besides a rotary movement a short reciprocating motion transverse to the frame of the machine. The needles are thus rubbed between the opposing grooves of the rollers 8 and 9, are softened and rendered fibrous, and waste matteris thoroughly removed from them. I find that the best results are obtained by making the grooves of the rollers 8 large, as shown, at the first roller and gradually decreasing in size toward the rear end. A convenient arrangement is to have the grooves of the first rollers three-fourths of an inch in pitch and the last three-eighths of an inch in pitch, the intermediate rollers having their grooves correspondingly made in pitch to provide a constantly-lessening width and depth of grooving from first to last. 011 the other hand, it is best to arrange the grooves of the upper rollers 9 with a small grooving for the first roller and gradually in crease the width and depth of grooving toward the last, as shown in Fig. 1. The first roller may have a pitch of threeeighths of an inch and the last three-fourths of an inch, the intermediate rollers being of such width and depth of grooving as to make a practically continuous series of constantly-increasing width and depth of grooving.

In the drawings I have shown five lower grooved rollers and three upper ones; but it is apparent that their number is subject to change at will. The rollers 8 and 9 are preferably made of the same diameter, as shown.

It is desirable to turn the strand or sliver of fiber over or change its position one or more times during its passage through the rubbing-rollers to assist the action of the rollers in reaching all parts of the needles. To

this end I employ the mechanism which is.

most clearly shown in Fig. 3, wherein 1O 1O are vertical rollers beveled at their lower ends, the rollers 10 having rigl1t-hand and the rollers 1O having left-hand spiral grooves. Four of these rollers are in the example shown arranged to turn toward the space A and four toward the space 13, so that as the two slivers or masses of fiber pass between the rollers 8 9 through the spaces A B their thin unrnbbed edges are turned up by the grooves or corrugations of the rollers 10 10 and rubbed as they pass on, the amount of edge turned up being regulated by the relative speed of the rollers S 9 1O 10 and also by the pitch of the grooves on rollers 10 10. The rollers 10 10 are mounted vertically in a frame 1.1 and have on their upper ends bevel-pinions 12, driven by bevel-wheels 13 on the shaft 14, which is driven from the rollers 9 by gears 15 and 16.

The lower rollers 8 are provided at one end with bevel gear-wheels 17, which mesh with similar wheels 17, carried and driven by a counter-shaft 18. One of the rollers 8 has an elongated shaft, upon which its gear 17 is mounted at the outerend and engages a similar gear 17 011 the end of the counter-shaft, and upon this elongated shaft of the roller 8 is mounted aband-wheel 18, which is driven by a belt 18 from the main shaft 19, or otherwise.

The rollers 9 are mounted on elongated shafts 9, adapted to be reciprocated transversely of the machine by eccentrics 21, driven by the shaft 20, and connected to the shafts 9 in the following manner: The strap 21 of each eccentric is forked and has secured between such forks, by means of short pins 9*, a perforated block 9", through which latter passes the rounded end of the shaft 9", the extremity of the shaft being provided with a tap or head 9, which abuts against the block 9", and thus connects the shaft and eccentric together.

The rollers 9 are driven by virtue of their gear-wheels 15 being in el'lgagement with the gear-wheels 15 of the rollers 8, the gearwheels 15, however, being loose on the shafts il -that is, the shafts are prismatic, so that they will be revolved by the wheels, while at the same time allowed to reciprocate through the latter. The rollers 22 23 are geared together at one end, and the bottom one, as well as the roller 24, is driven from the shaft 18 by bevel-gears 18 18. The rollers 7 7 are geared together, and the upper one is provided with a pulley 7, over which and a pulley 7 on the shaft of the roller 6 passes a short belt 7 the roller (3 being driven from the main shaft 19 by means of the belt and pulleys 6W (Shown in Fig. 1.) The roller 6 is provided at its other end with a pinion (5", which engages with a similar pinion (not shown) on the upper drum 5 of the aprons 5. Therollers 3 are geared together, and the lower one is connected to the shaft 19 by means of a belt 8, while it is also connected to the upper drum 2- of the apron. 2 by means of a short band 1. The shaft 20 derives its motion from the main shaft 19 through the medium of the bevel-gears 20. The last two rollers 22 and 23 constitute a wringing device and are made plain. The material is fed between these rollers by another roller 24. A

moistening device-such as is shown in my said patent, No. 315,666-may also be attached to the machine.

The machine above described is adapted to the reduction of fiber of fleshy plants as it cleans out foreign matter, and when used in connection with the said moistening device (not shown) thoroughly washes the fiber, rendering it especially adapted for use in making paper-stock. The special construction employed brings every fiberinto contact with the rubbing-rollers, besides bringing the needles constantly in rubbing-contact with each other. The use of the picking-cylinder at the beginning of the process, bringing the needles into parallelism before they enterthe rubbing-rollers, puts them in the most desir able shape for reduction to fiber by rubbing against each other without being broken unnecessarily, and byits accurateand at the same time rapid forwarding and alignment. of the needles permits the operator to crowd the apron with material without clogging the machine.

\Vl1ile the principal work of the vertical rollers of turning the needles and confining them to the spaces A B is performed by the two which immediately flank the respective slivers, yet those vertical rollers which are more remote from the slivers are useful in gathering and returning needles which have passed beyond the direct action of the rollers which are nearer to the slivers.

Having thus described my invention, the following is what I claim as new therein and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. In a fiber-rubbing machine, in combination with rubbing-rollers, a picker-cylinder arranged in advance thereof, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

2. In combination with rubbing-rollers, the picker roller arranged in advance thereof and a conveyer for receiving the needles from the pickenroller and conveying them to the rubbing-rollers, substantially as set forth.

3. In combination with the lower rubbingrollers 8, having surface grooving oppositely pitched, the said grooving being of graduallylessening width and depth from the front to the rear of the machine, and the upper rotating and reciprocating rubbing-rollers 9, having circumferential right grooving of gradually-increasing width and depth from front to rear of the machine, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

4. The combination, with the fiber-rubbing rollers, of a turning device consisting of grooved rollers arranged at an angle to the said rubbin g-rollers, substantially as set forth.

5. In combination with fiber-rubbing rollers 8 9, a turning device consisting of vertical. grooved rollers arranged between the successive horizontal rollers 8, adapted to turn the rope or mass of fiber, substantially as set forth.

6. The combination of a feed-apron 2, feedrollers 3, picker-rollers .4, endless aprons 5 under said picker-rollers, feed-rollers 6, longitudinally-grooved rollers 7, grooved rollers 8, reciprocating grooved rollers 9, and turning devices 1O 10 all arranged and adapted to operate substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

7. In a fiber-rubbing machine, the combination,with the upper circumferentially-grooved rollers 9, of the lower rollers 8, of substantially equal diameter and having two or more pairs of spiral grooves, the grooves of each pair being pitched toward a line in the direction of the feed, so as to carry the material along in as many distinct strands or slivers, substantially as set forth.-

8. In combination with rollers 8 9, the vertical turning rollers 10 10 beveled at their lower ends, substantially as set forth.

ALEXANDER SCOTT.

Witnesses:

C. M. DAHLGREN, W. W. THIGPEN. 

